Extraordinary Merry Christmas (Episode)
Extraordinary Merry Christmas is the ninth episode of Glee's third season, and the fifty-third episode overall. It premiered on December 13, 2011. It is the second Christmas episode on Glee, the first being A Very Glee Christmas, the tenth episode of Season Two. After Sectionals, The Troubletones are part of the New Directions again. Sue attempts to recruit homeless shelter volunteers for Christmas hoping to get the Glee Club. They happily agree, but when the Glee Club is asked to create a holiday special for the local PBS station with Artie directing, Sue is in dismay when they decline. Rory struggles as it is his first Christmas without his family and Rachel asks Finn for too much. The episode was directed by Matthew Morrison and written by Marti Noxon. Plot The episode opens with New Directions singing All I Want for Christmas Is You whilst decorating the choir room, with Mercedes singing the lead. Sue recruits the glee club to sing at a homeless shelter where she will be volunteering to distract her from the first Christmas without her sister Jean, who died earlier that year. Rachel gives Finn a long list of Christmas present suggestions. Finn is appalled by how much Rachel wants, although she tells him five items are plenty. When she later hints that an early gift would not be amiss, he surprises her with the donation of a sow in her name to needy Africans. Rachel is unhappy, reminds Finn that she is a vegan, and recommends that he sticks to her list to avoid embarrassment, while pointedly mentioning earrings. Rory dedicates the song Blue Christmas to his family, whom he misses, as this is his first Christmas without them. Sam offers to take Rory home with him to show him a true American Christmas. Will announces that New Directions has been asked to create a holiday special for the local PBS station, with Artie as the director. The station manager agrees to Artie's concept—a black-and-white homage to both The Star Wars Holiday Special and The Judy Garland Christmas Special, to feature hosts Kurt and Blaine welcoming their friends for suave banter and happy, cheerful songs. Rory will play Itchy the Elf and recite "Frosty the Snowman." Sam points out that Frosty does not have a happy ending, and that a little sadness is also a part of Christmas. But Artie only wants to present the "merry" part and will be rewriting Frosty to fit, so Sam decides not to participate. Rachel performs Extraordinary Merry Christmas with Blaine, wanting to impress Artie so she can get a big part in the show. When they finish Sue walks in believing that they are rehearsing for the homeless shelter performance, which they have all forgotten about. She feels disappointed in them and can't believe that they are going to walk away from people who have nothing. She asks the group if they all agree that they won't help and then leaves, leaving Quinn unsettled with the rest of the club after they ignored their other choice. Kurt and Blaine lead off the Glee Holiday Spectacular by performing Let It Snow, Rachel and Mercedes arrive and sing My Favorite Things with their hosts, Finn and Puck show up as not-quite-real Star Wars characters and perform Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, and Christmas Wrapping is sung by Brittany, with back-up by Santana, Tina, Mike and several other Cheerios. When Rory as Itchy arrives, the others are dismayed when he says that he will not be reading Frosty the Snowman; he instead reads the biblical nativity story from the Gospel according to Luke. Quinn and Sam are at the homeless shelter with Sue, helping to serve the rapidly disappearing meal, when the New Directions arrive, late, with more food and presents. They sing Do They Know It's Christmas? '' for them. Back at McKinley, Rachel has a change of heart and names Finn's gift sow "Barbra." Finn does give her the earrings she wanted, but she ultimately returns them and the iPod she gave him: they instead donate them to the Salvation Army kettle manned by Sam and Rory, and stay to help. Songs *'‡''' denotes that the song was either cut from the episode entirely or featured in the Director's Cut only. Guest Stars Guest Cast *Chord Overstreet as Sam Evans *Damian McGinty as Rory Flanagan *E.E. Bell as Don Barowski Co-Stars *Chewbacca *Marcanthonee Reis as Oscar Trivia *There's a Christmas hat on top of the font in the title-card. **The fourth time Glee's title-card is different, the others being The Rocky Horror Glee Show, A Very Glee Christmas, Silly Love Songs, Heart, Dance with Somebody, Dynamic Duets, Glee, Actually, I Do, Girls (and Boys) on Film and All or Nothing. *During the Do They Know It's Christmas? (Feed The World) number in the homeless shelter, while New Directions is singing, it shows the group giving presents or doing activities with the children. While the song is progressing you can spot the girl who acted as the younger version of Rachel in the episode The Substitute when Mr. Schuester was sick and in At the Ballet performance. *This episode features the most released songs so far on the show. *This episode marks Rachel's first solo of the season, which is the longest gap of any season. *The episode makes two references to A Charlie Brown Christmas: **Rachel quotes Sally Brown, saying, "All I want is what I have coming to me, all I want is my fair share." **Rory reads the same verses of the King James Bible (Luke 2:8-14) that Linus recites while explaining the true meaning of Christmas. He also quotes Linus's opening request - "Lights, please." *This is the second Christmas episode of the series, preceded by A Very Glee Christmas and succeeded by Glee, Actually. *It is revealed the Re-Walk Artie had received to help him walk in A Very Glee Christmas, broke the following day. *Matthew Morrison directed this episode, marking his directing debut. *This is the seventh episode to be named after a song featured in it, and the first to be named after an original song. *On August 1, 2012, Ryan Murphy uploaded a deleted scene from this episode on YouTube where Blaine gives Kurt a promise ring for Christmas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5HEYZhBbjY&feature=player_embedded *Lucasfilm Ltd. gave Glee permission to use Chewbacca for a scene, but nothing else. This explains why the music that accompanies his appearance sounds nothing like John Williams' famous theme from the movie. *During the black and white holiday special portion of "Extraordinary Merry Christmas," Finn and Puck appear to be dressed as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo respectively. **When asked by Blaine if they are in fact dressed as Luke and Han, Finn claims that any resemblance to Star Wars characters is purely coincidental. Errors *Blaine hands the cameraman the silver platter full of drinks in the next scene the platter is found back on the table void of any drinks. Later when Blaine points Rachel and Mercedes towards the piano the silver plate is once again full of drinks. When everybody gets up to go to the piano, the silver platter is empty once again. *When Brittany, Santana, Tina and the cheerios come to the bachelor chalet, Brittany closes the door but in the next scene the door is wide open. *When Rachel asks Finn for her present, he is seen taking out his backpack, but seconds later he takes out his backpack again. Gallery finchel 10.jpg|Cory Monteith's tweet from the set of 3x09 hockey.jpg a7f3d2880c1011e180c9123138016265_7.jpg On the walls of MH.png tumblr_lujtdlCICy1qb82v1o1_500.jpg tumblr_luubw7P8Iw1r6nrbwo1_500.jpg chewbacca_xmas.jpg|Matt with Chewbacca 3x09 tumblr_luvo6nWjku1qdev8fo1_500.jpg tumblr_luvqzddvrX1qjb4w1o1_500.jpg tumblr_luvrowjWfK1r3cxx5o1_500.jpg tumblr_luvs4wvSA81qc6xxfo2_500.jpg tumblr_luvsm1QsSv1qh0jufo1_500.jpg xylk.jpg ntcqh.jpg l8mgb.jpg tumblr_luvspahisK1qb675yo1_500.png Jenna Chew.jpg Chris Chew.jpg tumblr_luvtmvnd7H1qjbdofo2_400.jpg tumblr_luvsxmvs7z1qiim0ao2_1280.jpg dl5bq.jpg 35ddoub.jpg tumblr_lv24n7Xpth1r2dvtvo1_500.jpg tumblr_lv3p1klpO51qzmpdjo2_500.jpg tumblr_lv50l4mdTl1qbd895o2_500.jpg 0b115938164f11e180c9123138016265_7.jpg|From left to right: Jenna-Damian-Jenna-Lea-Cory Ekyoq.jpg 460728569.jpg Santanaxmas.jpg tumblr_lvjb5s3jnp1qbi5wyo1_500.jpg normal_002~62.jpg tumblr_lvnnnl6NZa1qdivjro1_500.jpg Tumblr lvnnnl6NZa1qdivjro2 1280.jpg tumblr_lvnnnl6NZa1qdivjro3_1280.jpg tumblr_lvnnnl6NZa1qdivjro4_1280.jpg tumblr_lvnohawyZh1qcf3p6o1_500.jpg tumblr_lvnovg1p101qcf3p6o1_500.jpg tumblr_lvnqicRW241qiqh8to1_500.png tumblr_lvqxr927d71qla9d4o1_500.jpg tumblr_lvqxslt77S1qla9d4o1_500.jpg tumblr_lvqyj8UjH91r6nrbwo3_400.jpg tumblr_lvqyj8UjH91r6nrbwo5_r1_500.jpg tumblr_lvqyj8UjH91r6nrbwo7_500.jpg tumblr_lvr7y1CZ0C1qbi5wyo1_400.png tumblr_lvv7omfOpQ1qi5o59o2_500.png tumblr_lvv7omfOpQ1qi5o59o1_500.png Screen shot 2011-12-07 at 11.44.02 PM.png kkh.jpg tumblr_lvw98vOGaP1qbi5wyo1_500.jpg vlcsnap-2011-12-16-08h29m42s188.png|Itchy the Holiday Elf tumblr_lvu64cOpCR1qknpp3o1_500.jpg|Let it snow cover Other music.jpg|Other tracks Finchel mistletoe kiss.png Tumblr lvy7qvZpUv1qboe6wo2 250.gif Tumblr lvy7qvZpUv1qboe6wo4 250.gif Snixmas.jpg|Merry Snixmas! tumblr_lw6a5kKb0o1qgf129o1_1280.png tumblr_lw6a7kIEcl1qgf129o1_1280.png glee red title card.png|Glee Title Card SueEMC.png SamEMC.png RoryBC4.png RoryBC3.png RoryBC2.png RachelR5.png RachelR4.png RachelR3.png RachelR2.png RachelR.png RachelFinnEMC.png RachelEMCS2.png RachelEMCS.png RachelEMC.png MercedesSamAIWFCIY2.png MercedesSamAIWFCIY.png MercedesAIWFCIY5.png MercedesAIWFCIY4.png MercedesAIWFCIY3.png MercedesAIWFCIY2.png KurtEMC.png FinnEMC.png BlaineRachelEMCS3.png BlaineRachelEMCS2.png BlaineRachelEMCS.png BlaineEMCS3.png BlaineEMCS2.png BlaineEMCS.png BlaineEMC.png ArtieEMC.png SantanaBrittanyEMC.png SamQuinnEMC.png RorySamEMC.png RoryEMC34.png RachelMFT2.png RachelMFT.png RachelMercedesMFT2.png RachelMercedesMFT.png RachelKurtMFT.png RachelEMC26.png RachelBlaineMercedesKurtMFT2.png RachelBlaineMercedesKurtMFT.png PuckSCICTT.png NDDTKIC4.png NDDTKIC3.png NDDTKIC2.png MikeTinaEMC.png MercedesRoryEMC.png MercedesMFT.png MercedesEMC43.png KurtBlaineLIS7.png KurtBlaineLIS6.png KurtBlaineLIS5.png KurtBlaineLIS4.png KurtBlaineLIS3.png KurtBlaineLIS2.png KurtBlaineEMC2.png KurtBlaineEMC.png KurtBlaineDTKIC.png FinnSCICTT2.png FinnSCICTT.png FinnRachelPuckEMC.png FinnRachelEMC34.png FinnPuckSCICTT2.png FinnPuckEMC.png BrittanyCW4.png BrittanyCW3.png BrittanyCW2.png BlaineLIS.png BlaineEMC68.png BlaineEMC37.png BlaineEMC13.png ArtieEMC2.png rory-and-sam-glee.jpg DoTheyKnow9.gif DoTheyKnow8.gif DoTheyKnow7.gif DoTheyKnow6.gif DoTheyKnow5.gif DoTheyKnow4.gif DoTheyKnow3.gif DoTheyKnow2.gif DoTheyKnow1.gif tumblr_mkpb02YLCp1r7lepzo1_250.gif kurt_tv_christmas.jpg|Kurt introduces himself to the audience during Artie's TV PBS Christmas special blaine_tv_christmas.jpg|Blaine receives a bow tie with Christmas trees on it from Rachel Videos thumb|300px|left Navigational Category:Season Three Episodes Category:Episodes